Accessibility Information
The race, disability and gender duties are known as public sector duties.
They are statutory duties, meaning that they are legally enforceable. All
public bodies (like councils and hospitals) that are subject to the duties
are legally obliged to pay 'due regard' to the need to take action on race,
disability and gender equality.
What does due regard mean?
The duties require public bodies to pay due regard - this means that the
weight given to race, disability, gender equality needs to be in proportion
to its relevance. In practice this means that in order to meet the duties,
public bodies will need to prioritise action to address the most significant
areas of race, disability, gender inequality in their remit and focus their
efforts where they can have most impact.
General and specific duties
The legislative framework has two main components: the general duty and the
specific duties. The general duty sets out the main objectives of each of
the duties, whilst the specific duties are the steps that public bodies have
to take to help them to meet the general duty. Although the specific and
general duties vary for race, disability and gender, all three duties share
a common vision: for public services to mainstream equality to ensure that
all individuals are able to benefit equally from public services, regardless
of their race or gender, or whether or not they are disabled.
England, Scotland and Wales are all covered by the same general duties for
the race, disability and gender duties, but there are some variations in the
specific duties between the different countries. These differences are set
out below for each of the duties.
Differences between the duties
Where differences between the duties exist they reflect the different nature
of discrimination faced by different groups, the varied communities involved
and the lessons learned from the introduction of earlier duties. It is
important that public bodies take account of these differences when they are
considering what action they need to take to meet the duties.
The single equality duty
In July 2008 the Government announced plans to introduce a new equality
duty. This will cover all seven equality strands, namely race, disability,
gender, gender identity, religion/belief, age, and sexual orientation. The
duty will not come into force until 2011 so it is important that public
bodies continue to meet their legal obligations under the race, disability
and gender duties until this time.
What is the race equality duty?
The race equality duty was introduced into legislation in the Race Relations
(amendment) Act 2000. It means that public bodies must have ‘due regard’ to
the need to:
●eliminate unlawful racial discrimination;
●promote equality of opportunity; and
●promote good relations between people of
different racial groups.
What are the specific duties for England?
The specific duties require all listed public bodies to publish a race
equality scheme that identifies all functions/policies that are relevant to
race equality. The scheme should be a timetabled and realistic plan, setting
out the public body's arrangements for meeting the general and specific
duties. They must also set out arrangements to:
●Assess and consult on the likely impact
proposed policies will have on the promotion of race equality found in our
race equality impact assessment guidance
●Monitor policies for adverse impact
●Publish the results of the impact assessments,
consultation and monitoring
●Make sure the public have access to information
and services
●Train staff on both the general and specific
duties
●Review the list of functions/policies at least
every three years
Although there is no requirement to revise and republish the race equality
scheme every three years, we recommend public bodies to do this.
The duty and education bodies
Under the race equality duty, all schools, further and higher education
institutions must produce a race equality policy which is a written
statement of their policy for promoting race equality.
The race equality employment duty
Under the race equality duty, all listed public bodies must monitor their
staff by racial group (using the categories of the 2001 census) for: staff
in post and applications for employment, and promotion and training.
Employers with over 150 staff must also monitor for training, performance
appraisals, grievances, disciplinary action and reasons for leaving their
employment. These monitoring findings must be published annually.
What is the disability equality duty?
The disability equality duty was introduced into legislation in the
Disability Discrimination Act (amended 2005). It means that public bodies
must have ‘due regard’ to the need to:
●promote equality of opportunity between
disabled persons and other persons
●eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under
the Act
●eliminate harassment of disabled persons that
is related to their disabilities
●promote positive attitudes towards disabled
persons
●encourage participation by disabled persons in
public life; and
●take steps to take account of disabled persons’
disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more
favourably than other persons (e.g. the provision of an accessible parking
bay near a building, where parking is not available for other visitors or
employees.)
What are the specific duties for England?
The specific duties require all listed public bodies to publish a disability
equality scheme, demonstrating how they intend to fulfil their general and
specific duties. Public bodies should involve disabled people in the
development of the scheme, implement the action plan set out in the scheme,
and review and revise the scheme every three years.
The scheme should include:
●Information about how disabled people have been
involved in its development
●The authority’s methods for undertaking impact
assessments
●An action plan setting out the steps it will
take to meet the general duty
●Arrangements for gathering information on the
effect of the authority’s policies and practices on disabled people
●Arrangements for using this information,
including reviewing the effectiveness of the action plan and preparing
subsequent disability equality schemes
Public bodies should report annually on: the steps taken in the action plan,
the results of their information gathering and how this information has been
used.
Secretary of State duty
The final specific duty requires listed Government departments to publish a
report signed by the relevant Secretary of State. This should set out an
overview of progress on disability equality as well as proposals for
co-ordinated action between authorities in the sector to progress disability
equality.
What is the gender equality duty?
The gender equality duty was introduced into legislation in the Equality Act
2006, amending the Sex Discrimination Act. It means that public bodies must
have ‘due regard’ to the need to:
●to eliminate unlawful sex discrimination and
harassment (including for transsexual people)
●to promote equality of opportunity between men
and women
What are the specific duties for England?
The specific duties require all listed public bodies to produce a gender
equality scheme showing how it intends to fulfil the general and specific
duties. It should also set out the gender equality objectives that the
authority has identified for meeting the duty.
In preparing a scheme, public bodies should:
●Consult employees, service users and others
(including trade unions)
●Take into account any information it has
gathered on how its policies and practices affect gender equality in
employment and the delivery of services
●In formulating its gender equality objectives,
consider the need to have objectives to address the causes of any gender pay
gap.
The scheme should:
●Set out how the authority will gather
information on the gender equality in employment, services and performance
of its functions
●Use this information to review the
implementation of the scheme’s objectives
●Assess the impact of its current and future
policies and practices on gender equality
●Consult relevant employees, service users and
others (including trade unions)
●Ensure implementation of the scheme objectives.
The scheme should be implemented within three years. Public authorities
should report on progress annually and review and revise the scheme at least
every three years.
Single equality duty
In July 2008 the government announced plans for the introduction of
a new equality duty. This will cover all seven equality strands i.e. race,
gender, gender identity, disability, age, religion or belief and sexual
orientation.
The equality duty will not come into force until 2011 and so it is important
until this time that organisations continue to meet their legal obligations
under the race, disability and gender equality duties.
Who is covered by the duties?
Under the race equality duty only public bodies that are
specifically listed are covered by the duty. There are separate lists in
relation to the general, specific and employment duties. The original lists
can be found in the relevant Codes of Practice although it is important to
note that some bodies have been added to this original list. An updated list
of all the public bodies that are covered by the duties will be published
soon.
Under the disability and gender equality duties the general duties apply to
all functions of every public authority. The definition of a public
authority, is 'any person who has functions of a public nature', so there is
no list of those public authorities covered by the general duties. You can
find more information on this within the relevant code of practice. There
are some public authorities that are exempted, details of these bodies can
be found in the relevant code of practice.
Under both the disability and gender equality duties only those bodies
specifically listed are covered by the specific duties which can be found in
the relevant code of practice. The original lists contained within the
gender equality duty code of practice have not been added to. There have
been additional public bodies added to the listing for the specific duties
under the disability duty.
A guide to the public sector equality duties can be found
here.
(External link)